As of the fall 2017 semester, the middle digit “8” will no longer signal any meaning and will not be reserved for use of honors courses. The HON requirement designation code becomes the single definitive indicator that a course is reserved for honors students only.
The course numbers 681 and 682 (as well as 691 and 692) will continue to be reserved for undergraduate thesis courses. The course numbers are used in part of a grade process (all are 2 semester sequences where the same grade is assigned for both halves).
The following types of honors courses will be available for use in the course catalog and class section level:
Symbols/Designations: H, HON
Characteristics:
Symbols/Designations: !, HOP
Characteristics:
Symbols/Designations: %, HIA
Characteristics:
In all cases, to count toward honors requirements, students must earn a grade of “B” or higher in a course that carries one of these honors designations.
This policy applies only to honors designations at the course catalog level. If these honors course designations are to be applied at the section level to a specific offering of the course in a given semester, oversight is the responsibility of the school/college honors program and is added each semester in the process of developing the Schedule of Classes.
All Honors courses with the middle digit “8” already had the HON type designation and will continue to do so. DARS relies on the requirement designation for assigning condition codes.
The Guide will include the honors designations in its course listings. No symbols or abbreviations will be used. The intention is to move toward the elimination of the use of symbols and abbreviations in favor of spelling out the type of honors assigned in plain English.
Approval of Accelerated Honors and Honors-Only course designations at the catalog-level are done in the course approval system.
Section-level honors does not go through governance and it is the responsibility of the school/college honors programs to audit the use of the designations each semester.
Prior to SIS there was no such thing as a requirement designation or a course attribute etc. Numbers and symbols were used in the Timetable to note which courses were honors and what type of honors. A middle digit of 8 for courses numbered 100 – 699 indicated that the course was for honors students only. The symbols H, ! and % also were used to indicate that a course was one of three types of honors courses.
SIS does not use the symbols H, ! and % but instead uses the requirement designations HON, HOP and HIA. This is what is used in the Schedule of Classes, DARS etc. Honors designations can be applied to a course at the catalog level meaning in all instances of that course being scheduled will carry that designation. Or the designations may be applied at the section level to any scheduled course. In some systems these designations are represented as the old symbols (H, !, %).
1/13/2017